Virginia Film Festival

A LITTLE PRINCESS – Repertory Screening

Young Sara is stripped of her privileged life and forced into servitude at a New York boarding school.

FLOW

In the wake of great flood, a courageous cat embarks on a wondrous journey through realms natural and mystical.

Robot Dreams

Preceded by the short film Starling. Dog leads a quiet and somewhat lonely life. Growing weary…

She Said

From Director Maria Schrader comes an ode to investigative journalism in one of the most well-reported…

Portraits From A Fire

Tyler, an eccentric and lonely teenager, spends his days Vlogging (video blogging) his Indigenous community and…

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Lady Chatterley (Emma Corrin, The Crown), a wealthy young woman born into a life of immense…

Good Night Oppy

In 2003, NASA sent Opportunity, a robotic rover, to Mars for a planned 90-day mission. Fifteen…

Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Official Oscar© Selection—Mexico The latest film from five-time Academy Award-winner Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, Birdman, Amores…

Smooth Talk

Suspended between carefree youth and the harsh realities of the adult world, a teenage girl experiences…

Saint Omer

Grand Jury Prize Winner, 2022 Venice Film Festival The groundbreaking narrative debut from acclaimed documentarian Alice…

Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest

Director Nancy Svendsen captures the inspirational and ultimately tragic tale of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa’s journey to…

Powerlands

Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso is a young Navajo filmmaker investigating the displacement of her ancestors and…

Ten Months

Mirae seemingly has everything going for her. She is a game engineer for an ambitious start-up,…

Heaven: To the Land of Happiness

Nam Sik, a meek hospital worker, desperately needs a costly medicine to treat his terminal illness.…

The Five Devils

Joanne and Jimmy live in a small, foggy village in the French alps with Vicky, their…

Close

Official Oscar© Selection—Belgium | 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Grand Prize Winner Thirteen-year-old neighbors Léo and Rémi…

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Golden Lion Winner, 2022 Venice Film Festival Academy-Award winning documentarian Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) chronicles the internationally…

Alcarràs

Official Oscar© Selection—Spain | Golden Bear Winner, 2022 Berlin Film Festival For as long as the…

After Sherman

Filmmaker Jon Sesrie-Goff travels to his minister father’s birthplace in Coastal South Carolina in the aftermath…

Under the Fig Trees

Official Oscar© Selection—Tunisia A group of teenagers in rural northwest Tunisia spend a summer working in…

Straighten Up and Fly Right

Kristen (Kristen Abate) is a 20-something New Yorker, dreams of being a writer while making ends…

Songs About Love

US Premiere A bittersweet black-and-white film about a young musician searching for his path in life,…

The Son

Hugh Jackman stars alongside Academy Award®-winners Laura Dern and Anthony Hopkins as a man whose life…

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams

In the early 20th century, a young, impoverished Italian cobbler sailed from Naples to the United…

Refuge

Deep in the American South, Clarkston, Georgia, is a small rural town reminiscent of a United…

Nosferatu

100th Anniversary Screening w/Live Music A genre-defining film for the ages, Nosferatu celebrates its 100th anniversary…

Mama Boy

Xiao-hong, a painfully shy, almost thirty-year-old fish store employee, lives alongside his control-freak mother, Meiling, who…

Liquor Store Dreams

Preceded by short film GOOD BOY. Liquor Store Dreams follows director So Yun Um and her…

Karaoke

Karaoke follows Meir and Tova, a middle-class couple in their 60s who are getting tired of…

Huesera

Best New Narrative and Nora Ephron Prize Winner, 2022 Tribeca Film Festival After years of trying…

Headwaters Down

Once considered the most polluted waterway in the United States, the James River is no stranger…

Hazing

Byron Hurt explores the history and culture of hazing, a widespread, far-reaching practice that has long…

From Sudan to Argentina

World Premiere When the construction of the Aswan High Dam threatened to destroy the Ancient Egyptian…

Fashion Reimagined

For Amy Powney, the creative director of Mother of Pearl fashion brand, the fashion industry's contribution…

Clarissa’s Battle

Clarissa Doutherd is a single Black mother and activist living in Oakland, California who, after becoming…

Dani’s Twins

Dani’s Twins follows the pregnancy and early parenting life of Dani Izzie, a Virginia resident who…

The Cow Who Sang a Song Into The Future

Following the disappearance of thousands of fish in a river in southern Chile, a several decades-deceased…

Black Fiddlers

The product of an intensive year's worth of uninterrupted field research, Black Fiddlers explores the legacy of African…

Beautiful Beings

2023 Oscar® Selection, Iceland Addi, a teenage boy raised by a clairvoyant mother, is the nominal…

Neighbours

In a little village on the Syrian-Turkish border in the early 80s, six-year-old Sero experiences his…

The Noise of Engines

Placed on compulsory leave from a Canadian customs college, Alexandre takes the opportunity to make a…

Last Night in Soho

In the latest from acclaimed filmmaker Edgar Wright, Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), an aspiring fashion designer, is…

The Worst Person in the World

Preceded by the short film The Wind and the Kite. The newest film from acclaimed director…

Red Rocket

Mikey Davies, aka “Mikey Saber,” is a washed up adult film star who is forced to…

Cafe Americano

Cafe Americano follows the story of Mikey Phillips (Alex Scheinman) as he ventures to make his…

Belfast

Belfast, the 2021 winner of the Toronto International Film Festival Audience Award, is set in Northern…

We Burn Like This

When 22 year-old Rae, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, is targeted by Neo-Nazis, her ancestors’ trauma…

All My Friends Hate Me

Preceded by the short film The Acolyte. All Pete (Tom Stourton) wants is to spend his birthday…

How the Monuments Came Down

How the Monuments Came Down is a deep dive into the history of Richmond, Virginia through…

Mayor Pete

Directed by Jesse Moss (Boys State), this film uses unprecedented access to South Bend, Indiana mayor…

Memoria

When Jessica (Tilda Swinton), a Scottish woman living in Columbia, hears a loud boom that disturbs…

I Don’t Fire Myself

Jeong-eun, a tenacious young woman, refuses to submit to her company’s blatant attempts to have her…

Jump, Darling

Preceded by the short film Playing the Game. Russell (Thomas Duplessie), an actor who moonlights as…

Jockey

An aging horse jockey attempts to win one last title on a championship horse, but past…

The Hand of God

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, comes the story of Fabietto Schisa, a boy growing up…

The Girl and the Spider

After living with her friends Mara and Markus for years, Lisa is finally moving into her…

Mending Walls

“Good fences make good neighbors.” - Robert Frost, Mending Walls. In the wake of the social unrest…

Monkey Beach

Preceded by the short film Searching for Luke. Monkey Beach is the story of Lisa (Grave…

Dachra

Tunisia’s first horror movie, Dachra follows three young journalism students who venture to an isolated village…

Nudo Mixteco

Preceded by the short film La Utopia de la Mariposa. Three stories intertwine during a celebration in…

Citizen Ashe

Citizen Ashe follows legendary African American tennis player, activist, and Virginia native Arthur Ashe as he…

Parallel Mothers

Described as “a little bundle of joy” by critics, Parallel Mothers is the story of two…

Passing

Passing follows two mixed-race women who choose to live on opposite sides of the color line…

Beans

In her debut feature, Tracey Deer recounts the 1990 Oka Crisis, a 78 day land dispute…

Petite Maman

After the death of her grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly joins her parents in taking stock of her…

Socks on Fire

Socks on Fire follows filmmaker Bo McGuire as he returns to his hometown of Hokes Bluff, Alabama…

The Speech

This comedic film d’auteur directed by Laurent Tirard follows 35-year-old Adrien at a disastrous family dinner…

Storm Lake

In the small town of Storm Lake, Iowa, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Art Cullen and his family…

Try Harder!

Preceded by the short film In the Shadow of the Pines. The students at San Francisco’s predominantly…

Zola

Based on the greatest true story ever tweeted, this film follows Zola (Taylour Paige), a self-assured…

Big Fur

World champion Canadian taxidermist Ken Walker undertakes the biggest challenge of his career in this funny…

Default

Default turns the fallout of the 1997 Asian financial crisis in Korea into riveting entertainment. The film follows three storylines: Si-hyun’s shows…

Queer Love on Screen

The VAFF will present an episode from season three of Netflix’s Dear White People that follows a…

Sibyl

Tired of mundane sessions with her clientele, therapist Sibyl drops multiple patients and pursues her dream…

Zombi Child

Beginning in 1962, this film focuses on the true story of Haitian man Clairvius Narcisse, who…

Rafiki

Tomboy and daughter of local politician, Kena, has always been “one of the guys.” Defying Kenya’s…

The Kingmaker

Centering on the controversial political career of Imelda Marcos, The Kingmaker explores the Marcos family's improbable…

The Humorist

Set in the waning days of the Soviet Union, The Humorist is a portrait of a…

Ghost Town Anthology

The frigid, small Québécois village of Irénée-les-Neiges is ominously disrupted by the unexpected death of local…

Beanpole

In 1924 two women, Iya, a nurse, and Masha, a recently returned soldier, struggle to reassemble…